Raje Government's claims on development hollow--Sibal

Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 21:33 [IST]

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Jaipur, Nov 16 (UNI) Union Minister and AICC National Media Committee Convener Kapil Sibal charged the Raje Government in Rajasthan with total failure in providing good governance and held that its claims on general development and excellence in NREGS works were "hollow and misleading".

Talking to reporters here, Mr Sibal, quoting official data on development parameters, said the BJP government in fact failed to achieve impressive results on vital parameters including literacy, education development, infant mortality rate, per capita consumption of electricity and per capita income.

He said many states, including Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, which are also going to polls, had performed much better than Rajasthan on these parameters.

Besides, this state was second most debt ridden state after Bihar having debt burden of Rs. 72,652 crore -- 53.6 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) -- till 2006-2007.

Many other states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Orrisa were in better position on this count, he stressed.

Mr Sibal also contested the Raje Government's claims of excellent performance on NREGS works and said the government's performance suffered serious lacunae in implementation of this ambitious project of the Centre.

He further said the state government had paid only Rs 35 to Rs 50 per day to workers on these works against the payable daily wage of Rs 73.

Moreover, the government also failed to cater job demands of needy families. There were over 11 lakh eligible families demanding jobs under the scheme but the state government could provide employment to only 2.4 lakh families.

He said the state government also failed on due handling of law and order and curbing corruption in public life.

The Congress leader claimed that the "bad governance" was liable to tax the ruling BJP dearly and the saffron party was set to taste bitter defeat at the hustings at the hands of the Congress.

Mr Sibal was in the town to address meetings in favour of Congress nominee Rajiv Arora in the Malviyanagar constituency here.